Saturday Reading: Proverbs 11 18
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 11 18
18  The wicked makes a deceitful wage; but one sowing righteousness has a sure reward.

Devotion:
There are certain people in life who seem to make a living out of others through doing everything wrong they can to them. They seem to thrive in being able to make money without care for others at all. Yes, they may well make a whole lot of money, but what they make will be relatively short lived because nobody will want their legacy they leave behind. Unfortunately we seem to have a lot of those sort of people in the world at the moment who are thriving on making money when others are struggling with just getting enough food to eat; how can that not eat at their very souls?

There are people that will try to convince you that what we do as Christians is not right because it’s not good to eat meat or not good to farm animals or other things like that that go against God’s Word. When we are faced with people that are bent on making money or making an empire (be it monetary based or religion based) we must always compare what they do with God’s Word. If what they are doing is against God’s Word then what they are doing is against God. To them we must turn our backs because they are bent on taking us away from God.

Many people will promise all manner of things if we follow them in some way. It may be a small temptation that will take us away from a friend in need for a few hours or maybe it will take us away from church. Each of these things cannot be for God if they are working against His people and against His ways! What we do must glorify God by lifting up His ways, His word and His name. What we do must work towards the glory that we can give to God. The rewards that we will get for doing such work for God may well not be money but will be a soul that is uplifted knowing that what we do is righteous in God’s eyes. The reward that we will get will last forever and not be a short-lived thing that disappears when the local currency goes down the pan. The reward that we get should not be the aim but the fulfilment of the joy we make!

Points to Ponder:
What do you aim at in life?

Is God in your sights?

Friday Reading: 1 Corinthians 6 12

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 6 12
12  All things are lawful to me, but not all things profit. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

Devotion:
How do you live your life? Do you live it without care for what you get up to, so long as it is not breaking the law? Maybe it is ok for you to break the law whilst nobody is watching. Maybe you think that getting up to mischief is actually quite fun and you do it whenever you can to keep the smile on your face. If you fall into one of these categories then you are probably not caring for what you watch, see and hear either. So many parents allow their children to watch movies at home that they would not normally be allowed to watch in the cinema just because they think that they know best.

Rules are there for a reason and the people that set those rules should be the ones that are making the decision as to whether things are justifiable, lawful and judicious. They should also be thinking about those things in the light of other people’s lives too and not just what they think. But that is where we fall down because what we think is right may not be right in other people’s eyes and visa versa. God is the one who does see the big picture and He alone is the one that can lay down the absolute law, what we do with our own laws should be to lift up God’s laws but that is not what happens. The more that people change the more the law makers give in to society and the more laws move away from God.

Just because we get up to something in our lives it does not necessarily mean that what we get up to is going to be good for us. We all take chances and we all bend the rules. We need to be aware that other people will be influenced by what we get up to. The more people that get up to something the more society begins to think that it is ok to do. How can it be right to take mind altering drugs that ruin your health? But that is what many societies think is ok now. God laid down the law in the beginning because He saw what we would get up to. We need to be constantly reminded of those laws so that we do not stray from them and fall into temptation because as soon as we do, others may well follow us to destruction.

Points to Ponder:
Do you enjoy life?

Do you lift up God in your life?

Thursday Reading: 1 Corinthians 2 10-12
 
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 2 11
11  For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man within him? So also no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Devotion:
Why is it that we hear people say that they know what others are going to do? If we think about it, nobody knows what someone else is going to do because nobody knows the inner workings of someone else’s mind. Yes we can have a pretty good guess at what others will do based on things they have done in the past but we certainly do not know their thoughts! This means that no other person can know your thoughts either... If you want to be able to make sure that someone knows your thoughts on a subject then you have to be bold enough to tell them about it!

So when people come forward and say that they know what God thinks about things then they are either hoping for a bit of publicity and will admit that they know nothing or they are basing their thoughts on what God has done in the past. Yes God will reveal things to us through the Holy Spirit but they will not be things that go against His Word because everything that He has said is the truth and He will not go back on the truth... So the people that say that the world will end in 2012 have obviously not read their bibles!

This does not mean that we can go forward and keep all manner of strange thoughts in our minds without worrying about anyone else finding them out – we have this capacity to play out of thoughts in real life just when we don’t want to... The more we think about something the more likely we are to do that when we least expect it; that is just the way we are. God is the one who can see into our hearts and into our minds because He is the one who created us. So when we have issues in our heads then He will be trying to talk to us through the Holy Spirit so that we know how to get ourselves out of the hole we seem to be digging for ourselves. Nobody around us will know what is going on in our heads until it is too late – but God already knows and so He is the one who will offer help first. Listen to His help and act on it before it’s too late!

Points to Ponder:
What goes through your head?

Are you ignoring God and following your thoughts instead?

Wednesday Reading: 2 Corinthians 11 16
 
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 11 16
16  Again I say, Let no one think me foolish. If otherwise, yet receive me as foolish, so that I may also boast a little.

Devotion:
How many times have you had to sit and listen to someone as they boast about all the things they have done, got up to, achieved or plan to do? The Lord reminds us that we need to take one day at a time to make sure that what we do, we do in time for Christ and not as a premeditated form of boasting or pride for ourselves. Yes there are going to be times when we want to be able to tell others of the things that we have done and we should be able to, but if we leave our God out of it then we are lifting ourselves up and not God.

When the apostle was writing this letter to the Corinthians he had already come up against the false prophets and false apostle that continued to boast about what they were able to achieve and some of them even used God name to support their own aims. Pauls reply was that he should be able to boast a little in reply so that he could show them what God had achieved in His life and through him. Paul wanted to boast about God, not about himself, because he knew that everything that he had done was because God had enabled him to do it and not because he had found some sort of inner strength to do it.

Each day that God gives us is a clean slate upon which we can build something. We could build a nice flash house or a smart car and say how wonderful it is to be able to earn lots of money so we can do such things, or we could build what is required and use what God gives us. We could build the bare minimum and hold in reserve that which is left over, or we could spend everything God gives us because we know it starts afresh tomorrow. God has given us life so that we can live for Him. He has given us wisdom so that we can help others. He has given us a rock upon which we can build a sure stance. We need to use what He has given to us for His glory and see what He has in store for us tomorrow...

Points to Ponder:
How often do you boast?
 
How often do you boast about God?